Maha Kumbh festival

ROBERTO SCHMIDTROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images

A woman prays by a candle light as two men use a boat to make their way upstream in the confluence of the Yomuna and the Ganges river at the Sangam during the Maha Kumbh festival in Allahabad on February 7, 2013. The Kumbh Mela in the town of Allahabad will see up to 100 million worshippers gather over 55 days to take a ritual bath in the holy waters, believed to cleanse sins and bestow blessings.

A woman prays by a candle light as two men use a boat to make their way upstream in the confluence of the Yomuna and the Ganges river at the Sangam during the Maha Kumbh festival in Allahabad on February 7, 2013. The Kumbh Mela in the town of Allahabad will see up to 100 million worshippers gather over 55 days to take a ritual bath in the holy waters, believed to cleanse sins and bestow blessings. (ROBERTO SCHMIDTROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images)

A woman prays by a candle light as two men use a boat to make their way upstream in the confluence of the Yomuna and the Ganges river at the Sangam during the Maha Kumbh festival in Allahabad on February 7, 2013. The Kumbh Mela in the town of Allahabad will see up to 100 million worshippers gather over 55 days to take a ritual bath in the holy waters, believed to cleanse sins and bestow blessings.